Bath singer Gabrielle Aplin leaves wild days behind

She has a number one single already and is set to tour Europe within months, but Bath singer Gabrielle Aplin has come clean about her boozy youth growing up in a little village in Wiltshire.

Like Prince Harry and thousands of other teenagers before her in the rural West, she was just 15 the first time she got “hammered”, but said it has put her off heavy drinking ever since.

Now 20 years old, the singer-songwriter has given an interview which will no doubt delight, or at least reassure, her parents back in Sutton Benger, near Chippenham, in which she admits the rock ’n’ roll drugs scene is not for her.

“I love going out but I don’t do drugs,” she said. “I don’t get so hammered I can’t remember. I like to think I’m sensible, not boring, just sensible.”

Gabrielle was talking before a gig at The Forum in north London, and with a debut album due in April and tour of Australia and New Zealand lined up supporting Ed Sheeran, she is expected to have a busy 2013 at the top of the charts.

Her minimalist cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood Christmas classic The Power of Love was picked up by John Lewis for the store’s festive TV advert campaign, and took the musician from promising new artist who had just left the City of Bath College to number one in a matter of weeks. She has already been nominated for a major newcomer award, the MTV Brand New for 2013 award, and is on a UK tour in March, before touring Europe in April. But now she has gone from playing pubs and clubs in the West to playing big venues in London and around the world, she has promised it won’t go to her head.

The singer has long had a rock-band boyfriend and recently moved to west London – but the stereotypical lifestyle of a touring musician is not for her. “I’d never do any drugs, especially if I’m with people I don’t know. I just don’t want to risk it,” she said.

The delights of underage drinking in Wiltshire villages was made famous by Prince Harry and his shenanigans at the age of 15 – and Gabrielle Aplin admitted once following suit. “I do drink. It’s quite bad, I get wasted on one. I don’t drink a lot though, I’m just a lightweight. The first time I got drunk actually it was really bad, I was about 15 and it was on whiskey. Never again – ever. Never whiskey,” she joked.

With a follow up single, her own Please Don’t Say You Love Me, out next month, the former Sheldon School pupil was due to release her debut album English Rain in November, but that was put on hold with the success of The Power of Love.

Comments

Well, I'm glad she doesn't do drugs, I haven't either. I would not know what cannabis smells like. We used to drink dreadfully weak beer in the Keel Club in Bathampton in the late 60's, anyone remember those days?